Tire condition monitoring systems are known. A tire condition monitoring system not only enhances vehicle safety by providing tire condition notification to a vehicle operator, it can help reduce CO2 emissions as the vehicle runs more efficiently with properly inflated tires. Known tire condition monitoring systems may include tire-based sensors mounted on the inside of the tire (e.g., attached to the tire rim) for measuring tire conditions such as temperature and pressure. A tire-based transmitter operatively coupled to the tire-based sensor transmits a radio signal to a vehicle-based receiver unit. The transmitted signal may include both temperature and pressure information along with a unique tire identification code. Each tire of the vehicle has its own associated tire identification code. The vehicle-based receiver unit monitors the tire condition signals, the received tire identification code, and controls a display device within the vehicle cabin to warn the vehicle operator when the sensed tire condition(s) are not within predetermined limits. The vehicle-based receiver unit can further indicate which tire location has an out-of-limit tire condition by associating the tire location with the received tire condition signals using the unique tire identification code.
Certain regulations have been proposed for tire pressure monitoring systems (e.g., by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (“UNECE”) Transportation Division and, in particular, regulation EC R64.02) applicable to certain classes of vehicles. These regulations require that the tire pressure monitoring system must provide a warning to the vehicle operator upon a predetermined percentage pressure loss (e.g., 20% pressure loss) within any one of the vehicle's tires. Since tire pressure is dependent on temperature, detection of a percentage pressure loss can prove difficult. In certain geographic area of the world, it is possible to have a large percentage variation of tire pressure simply due to ambient temperature variations particularly when combined with tire temperature increases during use. The four major factors that influence tire pressure are tire temperature, ambient temperature, ambient atmospheric pressure, and vehicle load conditions. Tire temperature varies during use, ambient temperatures vary over time and location, ambient atmospheric pressure varies according to altitude and weather, and vehicle load varies under use conditions. It is difficult to establish a cold tire pressure value during normal vehicle operation particularly when a vehicle operator inflates a hot tire to a recommended pressure value.
Also, the actual pressure sensing device of the tire-based sensor unit is a manometer that, itself, has a measurement tolerance that further complicates a determination of a particular percentage pressure lose in the tire. An improper determination of a pressure loss resulting from temperature variations and sensor (manometer) error can lead to false alarm notifications to the vehicle operator thereby harming the credibility of the tire condition monitoring system.